1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a structural design of a folding protective cover for a heat-conductive medium, and more particularly, to a folding protective cover for a heat-conductive medium suitable for a heat sink device.
2. Related Art
Electronic elements in the computer apparatus, such as central processing unit (CPU) chips and power integrated circuits (IC), etc., generate heat when carrying out operations. The watt consumption of CPU chips has become higher and higher, and the high integrity of ICs also centralizes the heat source, such that not only does intense heat occur during the operation, but the resulting heat increases as the operation speed increases. Since the operation temperature has severe impact on whether the computer apparatus will crash or not, appropriate temperature control will provide the computer apparatus with high reliability and allow the heat-emitting electronic elements to operate stably.
In order to reduce the working temperature of the heat-emitting electronic elements while maintaining the effective operation, various heat sink devices are designed through the heat sinking design. The heat resistance of the surface can be reduced by closely contacting the heat sink device with the heat-emitting electronic element, and the heat-conductive effect between the heat sink device and the heat-emitting electronic element can be enhanced by coating a heat-conductive medium there-between.
As for manufacturers of heat sink devices, a heat-conductive medium is generally arranged on a heat sink device in advance, to facilitate the later stage assembling and processing for the customer. However, during the transportation of heat sink devices, it is rather easy for the heat-conductive medium to pollute the ambience, or to be scraped and squeezed by the surrounding objects. Thus, the heat-conductive medium must be sufficiently protected while transporting heat sink devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,917 discloses a method for applying a protective membrane directly onto the bottom surface of a heat sink device provided with a heat-conductive medium, to protect the heat-conductive medium. Although this method can prevent the heat-conductive medium from being polluted by the ambience and vice versa, the protective membrane directly contacted with the heat-conductive medium is likely to be squeezed to be deformed or scraped by ambient external forces during the transportation of the heat sink device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,458 discloses a protective cover body for a heat-conductive medium, wherein the central part of the cover body corresponds to a heat sink device with a heat-conductive medium, while the edge of the cover body is adhered and secured to the bottom surface of the heat sink device. Although deforming and scraping of the heat-conductive medium due to squeezing can be reduced in this way, the protective cover body tends to be spatially restrained during transportation and stocking due to its large size and volume, thus affecting the dimensions of the material and thereby resulting in extra burden to transportation operations.